Paul Nixon
Adam Collins looks at the wreckage left after Australia’s sorry defeat at Hobart – their fifth Test loss in a row
‘Bairstow’s keeping has improved but there’s still a long way to go’
Right, this will be over by lunch.” That was meant to be a gag, offered when Usman Khawaja finally misplaced his patience and forwent his wicket. He had edged Kyle Abbott with Australia still 112 in arrears, seven wickets in hand and a quarter of an hour into the fourth day. But, as is commonly the case with snide remarks, they are effective when born of an underlying truth. A truth emphatically validated by the time Australia had lost 8-for-32 and the match by an innings and 80 runs. An annihilation that had ceded the trophy to South Africa in straight sets. All before lunch was even served, by 11:53am.
It was a lot more than that, though. This is rock bottom for this Australian side. The same side who were sitting pretty top of the ICC rankings only five Tests ago. They’ve lost every outing since, away in Sri Lanka and now at home. Former Australian opener Simon Katich said he was astonished at the sight, before reconsidering that view:“I guess we shouldn’t be that surprised.”
This was meant to be the day this fledgling summer returned to normal. Sure, chances of Australian victory were less than negligible due to the shambles that was the first innings, all out 85. But it wouldn’t have been for nothing had they found a way to force the game into a final day. Or a fourth innings. The contrast from that possibility, to the reality of the crisis that now pervades every component part of this failing team, is palpable.
Now, Steve Smith’s batsmen have been ordered back to Sheffield Shield cricket to compete for their spots. Coach Darren Lehmann has been directed to reinvent his ways by his boss. Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland dashed back to Tasmania to address the team and front the media. In every direction, there’s tension and angst. No job is secure.
Smith’s response was strident as he’s ever been as captain, filthy with what he is overseeing and happy to say as much. He freely admits to hurting and feeling humiliated.“I am embarrassed to be sitting here,” was his blunt assessment after the rout.
“Whether the ball is seaming or spinning or swinging we don’t have an answer at the moment,” Smith added.“I need players that are willing to get in the contest and get in the battle and have some pride playing for Australia, some pride in the Baggy Green.”
Meanwhile, South African skipper Faf du Plessis couldn’t be any happier, sporting the broadest smile to match the triumph. But they aren’t finished yet. A win in Adelaide’s day-night series finale would constitute the first time Australia have been clean-swept at home.“There isn’t anyone who has come all this way and done this to an Australian team,” he said.“We want to do that very badly.”
The most exasperating moments for home fans were as their middle-order again faltered. Adam Voges’ dismissal was emblematic of his own uncertainty, caught between playing and leaving, somehow fending Abbott to gully. Callum Ferguson on debut did much the same to Kagiso Rabada. The former, at 37 years old, will almost certainly be dumped with a Test average of 61.87. As for the latter, his Baggy Green likely to finish with just one use.
When Rabada’s wheels were too fast for the ‘keeper Peter Nevill, a brutal reprise of the first innings flop was essentially complete. Across two innings, Australia hadn’t faced so few balls in a home loss since 1928, bowled out twice in little more than a day’s worth of play. For the victors, Abbott’s 6/77 and Rabada’s 4/34 were the appropriate returns for some of the best bowling seen on these shores in modern memory.
Casting back to where the calamity began: the sixth ball of the match.Vernon Philander’s opening over was his least penetrative, but that didn’t prevent David Warner swinging at a ball more than a metre from his off-stump, nicking in the most unflattering fashion. It was an unforgivable mistake from the vice-captain in a game with so much riding on it.
Five for 21 read the score 12 overs later after Ferguson was run out in his first innings, only reinforcing the chaos. Earlier,Voges received the sort of unplayable delivery from Philander first up that batsmen so often get when on their last chance.
Smith watched it all from the other end, his unbeaten 48 the only thing standing between his side and falling for less than the 60 all out from the fateful Trent Bridge mess of 2015. It was still the third Test in a row where Australia had lost all their ten wickets for fewer than 100 runs.
South Africa’s top-order didn’t excel either, losing wickets consistently in the final session of the opening day. But with a first-innings lead of 86 overnight already in the bank, it mattered little. As did the rain that ruined the second day before a ball was bowled.
On the third morning the sun rose again, but for any sort of resurrection the Australians had to force South Africa to fall over more in a form that they are accustomed. Quintin de Kock was having none of that though, charging to a 139-ball ton, making his craft look easier than any other batsman in the game. The 144 he put on with Temba Bavuma meant when Australia did crash through – taking 5/50 either side of lunch – the lead was still a huge 241.
Josh Hazlewood finished with six wickets, the product of relentless accuracy each time he was given a chance. By the innings, he and Mitchell Starc are becoming the sort of new ball pair that could be inked into the teamsheet by default for many years. If fit. Small mercies.
Needing to bat and bat and bat, Joe Burns tickled Abbott down the legside to begin the second dig before scoring. Abbott and Rabada then commenced a 17-over stint at the bowling crease only survived by Khawaja and Warner for the fact that they were too good, too often, to win an edge.Which isn’t to diminish the effort of the Australians to survive, doing so until Warner fell in bizarre circumstances from a ball that hit the stumps only after collecting his thigh pad and arm. It was that kind of Test.
Khawaja and Smith made it to stumps and halved the deficit, the former getting a half century in the process, but it would count for little unless they soldiered on through the fourth day. And we already know what happened then.
“We were relentless,” said du Plessis of his exceptional fast bowlers, highlighting as well Philander’s five wickets on the opening day.“We didn’t let the pressure go and in the field we backed it up.”
It was a view shared by veteran South African broadcaster Neil Manthorp who declared it the “most powerful” performance he had seen from the team he has followed for 25 years.
As for Smith – what to do? “I wish I knew ,” his grim response .“Something has got to change.We have got to play a lot better than we have been if we are going to beat any opposition around the world at the moment.” In the absence of anything else that can save them before the final Test? Cue the swinging axe.
Smith’s batsmen have been ordered back to Shield cricket to compete for their spots and coach Lehmann to reinvent his ways by his boss